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You want a number of issues to race in Method 1 — cash, sponsorship, talent, a lifelong funding in perfecting race craft. However on the subject of logistics, there’s actually just one factor you completely have to have: A brilliant license.
Mainly, a brilliant license is the competitors license it’s good to race in F1. Understandably, the tactic of acquiring a brilliant license is extremely complicated — which is one thing we’re at the moment seeing as AlphaTauri pursues IndyCar driver Colton Herta for 2023. Herta, although, isn’t eligible for a brilliant license below the present factors system, which has sparked a number of dialogue on social media about whether or not or not he needs to be given an exemption.
That’s a dialogue for a unique time — and one which’s based mostly totally on private interpretation. At the moment, we’re going to run by the tremendous license fundamentals so you may make your individual name.
(Welcome to Motorsport Explained, the collection the place we break down racing guidelines and ideas in an simply digestible manner for all of the newcomers on the market. If there’s one thing in racing you’ve at all times questioned about, or one thing that has by no means made sense, go away your matter within the feedback or e mail me at eblackstock [at] jalopnik [dot] com.)
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To place it fairly merely, a brilliant license is sort of a driver’s license, however as an alternative of permitting you to drive on public roads, it permits you to compete in a Method 1 race. The purpose is to solely enable drivers with a demonstrated means to compete to enter an F1 race.
Super licenses have existed for decades in some form or fashion, and they’ve been the subject of debate many times before. In fact, the addition of new, unwanted clauses in a driver’s super license contract led to a drivers’ strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix.
The most recent iteration of super license eligibility rules was introduced ahead of the 2016 season and includes the following clauses:
Now we get into the nitty-gritty. Many FIA championships and non-FIA-sanctioned top-level racing series are eligible for super license points, based on a driver’s finishing position in the overall championship of their respective series. For example, if you win the W Series championship, you earn 15 super license points. If you win in IndyCar or Formula 2, however, you get all 40 points you’d need to apply for a super license.
To make things a little easier, the FIA allows drivers to combine points from the previous three years. So, if you won a championship in Formula 4 one year, took a championship in W Series the next year, and then won the Super Formula championship in your third year, all of those finishes would count toward your points total, and you’d be able to apply for a super license. If you waited another year, during which you failed to place well in any championship, only the points you scored in the W Series and Super Formula would be eligible.
Further, a series has to feature at least 10 full-time drivers in order to be eligible for super license points. Drivers can also score one super license point by competing in a Formula 1 Free Practice session.
The full list of eligible series and their respective points offerings is available on the FIA’s web site.
Whereas it’s by no means precisely been straightforward to get a brilliant license, it received an entire lot more durable after Purple Bull fast-tracked a teenage Max Verstappen to Method One in 2015 to fill an open slot on its secondary Toro Rosso staff. On the time, Verstappen had solely simply began competing in Method 3; earlier than that, his solely expertise was in karting. Whereas Verstappen did show to be a reliable driver, the tremendous license factors rules had been carried out to stop future extraordinarily younger drivers from coming into F1 too shortly.
As with most exhausting guidelines, there are exemptions or clauses that may assist an otherwise-ineligible driver obtain a brilliant license — or that might low cost a driver who would usually qualify.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted within the delay, cancellation, or extreme amendments of racing collection around the globe. In gentle of this, the FIA is at the moment permitting drivers to depend their three highest championship finishes from the earlier 4 years of racing outcomes towards their tremendous license, as an alternative of the usual three.
The FIA additionally grants itself the power to award a brilliant license to a driver with out 40 tremendous license factors based mostly on “circumstances outdoors their management or causes of pressure majeure.”
That “pressure majeure” clause is protecting Herta’s tremendous license hopes alive proper now. Presently, Herta’s 2018 Indy Lights season doesn’t depend for tremendous license factors as a result of fewer than 10 full-time drivers competed within the collection; he wants these factors in an effort to qualify for a brilliant license. The FIA may theoretically determine that these 2018 outcomes ought to depend — all of it is determined by the opinions of the individuals who will finally make that call.
In principle, the weighted rankings for tremendous licenses exist as a technique to consider a driver’s readiness for Method 1. That’s why open-wheel racing collection like Method E or IndyCar are ranked larger than, say, IMSA GTD Professional or NASCAR Cup Collection racing. There’s a extra related switch of abilities from these open-wheel collection to F1.
Relating to Herta’s scenario, there’s a giant debate about why IndyCar — a top-tier skilled racing collection — earns fewer tremendous license factors than Method 2. The FIA hasn’t given any official reply for why that’s, nevertheless it’s essential to maintain a couple of issues in thoughts. First, these factors had been developed virtually a decade in the past, throughout which period IndyCar was nonetheless recovering from a messy cut up and reunification of the collection. Whereas the FIA supposed to replace the factors it awards to sure collection to extra precisely replicate the competitors in these collection, it has not but completed so.
Second, Method 2 is a feeder collection to F1, so organizers naturally view it because the penultimate step on the street to F1, extra so than IndyCar. Lastly, the FIA is primed to offer extra credence to different FIA collection, just because they race below the identical common rulebook relating to issues like factors payouts for race wins. As a result of IndyCar just isn’t sanctioned by the FIA, it runs on a unique algorithm.
Nothing on this world is free, together with a brilliant license. A driver who holds a brilliant license is charged an annual price. In 2012, it value €10,000 (or $12,800 on the time) to acquire a brilliant license. Drivers who compete in F1 and renew their license are additionally charged a further €1,000 for every championship level they scored the earlier yr.
It isn’t clear if these charges are nonetheless the identical, as F1 and the FIA are notoriously tight-lipped about funds. If it had been the case, although, Max Verstappen would have paid €405,510 (or roughly $400,855 based mostly on at this time’s trade price) to keep up his tremendous license. Some drivers have reportedly paid a one-time price of over $1 million to resume a brilliant license.
Like all algorithm, tremendous license rules are complicated, imperfect, and at all times in want of a refresh — although the precise nature of a “correct” repair goes to depend upon who you ask. Somebody from a European open-wheel background might not really feel there’s something unsuitable with the present factors payout for IndyCar versus Method 2; an American open-wheel fan might really feel in a different way. Some of us may assume IndyCar’s relevance is simple because of a excessive stage of competitors within the collection; others might really feel it will get an excessive amount of credit score as a result of the collection just isn’t and has by no means been designed to be a stepping-stone to Method 1. It is essential to do not forget that, it doesn’t matter what else occurs, motorsport is not precisely a meritocracy, and neither is the tremendous license system.